In this paper we introduce two classes of operators on spaces of continuous functions with values in $F$-spaces under the action of which many functions behave chaotically near the boundary. Several examples—including onto linear operators, left and right composition operators, multiplication operators, and operators with pointwise dense range or with some stability property—are given. This new theory extends one recently developed on spaces of holomorphic functions.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 47B38. Secondary 30D40; 46E10; 54D45